The Oracles
by DolbyDigital
Summary: "I still think it would have been better for him to remain," he said. / "We shall see."
**A/N -** So I think this is probably really confusing, and I'm sorry about that. I was just trying something. Not sure how well it turned out.

* * *

 _"What– what do you think it is?" he stammered, looking down at the squalling infantile creature._

 _"Something which should not exist in this universe," she said; her tone was calm, but her eyes betrayed her worry._

 _"So, what should we do?" he asked, looking from her to the creature._

 _"We must return him," she said simply._

 _"Him? You mean to say that this… thing is a person?"_

 _"Humans are not the only creatures with genders, my friend," she said, only then turning to face her companion. "But yes, he was once a man."_

 _"And now?"_

 _"We shall see."_

.oOo.

"Is it dead?" a cloaked figure asked, too far away for Quirinus to be able to make out his features.

"Y-yes, I b-b-believe so," he said, gaze turned away from the dismembered beast.

"What should we do?" a second voice asked.

"There's not much we _can_ do," answered a third. Quirinus didn't speak for a moment, too busy swallowing the excess saliva in his mouth and ensuring his hand remained firmly in place over the lower half of his face.

"I-I-I th-think," he began, when he felt he could speak once more. "We sh-should move a-a-along."

"And just _leave_ it here?" asked the first voice.

"No, see!" the second voice shouted, and Quirinus finally looked up then to see excitement clouding the mans features, red staining high on his cheeks and eyes flashing bright. "It's moving! We should help it!"

"I knew it would be a mistake to bring you," the third voice - a man nearing middle age, his hairline already receding - said.

"You didn't want to bring Quirrel either," the first voice - the only man Quirinus knew; the one who had encouraged him to join this expedition after learning of his plans and more drinks than either of them could remember - said. "And he's the only reason we got this far.

"We would have done fine without him," the third man said, disdain showing clearly in the turn of his lip. "Look at him! He's going to vomit any minute!"

"N-n-no I-I'm n-n-not," Quirinus said, though the words were faint, and the pale, clammy, quality his skin had taken belied them.

"I don't think it's the animal that's moving," the first man - Jones - said. "I think it's… _inside_." He swallowed heavily, wincing as he did so, and took a shaky step back.

"How could there be anything inside _that_?" the second man asked, stepping slightly closer to the carcass, pulling his sleeve over his hand and covering his mouth and nose, and attempting to peer inside without touching it. Jones, seemingly bolstered by his companions advance, stepped forward to join him. The third man was backing away, dragging his feet across the forest floor and refusing to take his eyes off the creature.

The sudden flash of light surprised them all, replacing everything with a blinding white so bright that Quirinus felt as though his eyes were burning. He could feel his eyes watering, and the hard surface of the forest floor digging into his knees from where he must have fallen. His nails dug into his scalp, though he couldn't remember bringing his hands to his ears, and the ringing sounds seemed to be coming from both inside his head and the air all around him.

Just as suddenly as it appeared, everything stopped, and Quirinus was alone in the forest, his companions no where to be seen.

He looked around him, heart rate increasing with each passing second, and slowly got to his feet. Every sound seemed louder now, almost deafening, in the sudden silence left by the absence of the ringing.

And the voice in his head - not his own, but feeling familiar. Safe. _Welcoming_ _-_ was whispering to him in a tongue that he didn't recognise, before switching to a more familiar language.

.oOo.

 _"Are you sure that was the best idea?" he asked, watching the events unfold._

 _"It was what had to be done," she said simply. Unlike her companion, she did not watch. She felt no need to._

 _"But the things that they will do together–" he began._

 _"The things that they_ might _do together," she corrected him. "We do not see the future in its entirety, and this realm in particular has a tendency to… veer off course."_

 _"But he will certainly bring no good," he said._

 _"That is not our position to judge. We must simply watch."_

 _"I know this. But sending him back was not merely_ watching," _he said._

 _"It was not his time. He was not intended to be here. Not yet."_

 _"I still think it would have been better for him to remain," he said._

 _"We shall see."_


End file.
